When the Eight-Year-Old Boy We Were Adopting Came Home With Everything He Owned in a Black Bag—Then My Missing Brother’s Watch Fell Onto His Bed

No known relatives had been located during the permanency search.

Daniel Reed.

Not David Mercer.

I opened the leather casing.

The watch itself gleamed beneath.

I pressed the release.

The brass lid opened.

Inside was the engraving I had not seen since childhood.